Light streamed through the tall windows of Kathryn Kain’s studio, opening out onto sweeping Bay views as students gathered around a glass plate on a work table. After Kathryn rolled layers of vibrant color across the glass, they placed leaves, sprigs, and found objects onto its surface. The printing press roared to life, shaking the building as the paper passed through. The students watched closely as Kathryn peeled away the one-of-a-kind print, revealing layers of color, texture, and form built through the collective process.

Last Friday, Mid-Pen’s Studio Art Honors classes visited the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists studios in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, home to the largest artist community in the United States. Housed in a former U.S. Naval Shipyard, the space has supported working artists for more than 40 years and now includes nearly 300 active studios. For Mid-Pen art teacher Lesly Vazquez, the visit was intentionally designed to give students direct exposure to what it means to be a working artist, seeing an artist’s studio, observing their process, and understanding that creative careers exist beyond the classroom.

The class visited the studio of Kathryn Kain, a local printmaking artist who has worked at Hunters Point since the 1980s. Kathryn is also a visiting faculty member at Stanford University and Santa Clara University teaching printmaking, balancing her studio practice with teaching.

Inside Kathryn’s studio, students were surrounded by stencils, drawings, and materials gathered from unexpected places. Kathryn works extensively with found objects—items that might otherwise be discarded—as well as natural elements like leaves and plant fragments, which she incorporates into her prints. As she demonstrated her process, students learned about monotype printing and watched as the press brought each layered composition to life.

Together, the group created a collaborative print. In the end, the finished print was cut into squares so that each student could take home a piece of the shared artwork. The project itself mirrored the environment at Hunters Point: communal, collaborative, and built through many hands and stages.

Student reactions echoed a strong sense of inspiration, particularly in how the space helped them imagine a future within an active artistic community. “Such a big congregation of artists—it’s inspiring to be there,” said Saoirse D. ’26.

For Izze G. ’26, seeing Kathryn balance her own artistic practice alongside teaching left a lasting impression. “When you’re an artist, you have to do all this other stuff,” they shared. “It gives me a little more hope of how much art is still in her life, even though she doesn’t do it all the time.”

As the Studio Art Honors classes begin their own printmaking unit this week, students will carry those firsthand experiences back into their work. Their final prints from the field trip will be on display at Night of the Arts in April, offering the broader community a glimpse into the layered, collaborative process that manifested inside a working artist’s studio.